


Behind the Stacks

by freetodream5



Series: The Adventures of Librarian Shane Doan [1]
Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe, Arizona Coyotes | Phoenix Coyotes, Fluff and Crack, M/M, Slow Burn, probably lame
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-15
Updated: 2016-01-15
Packaged: 2018-05-14 01:50:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,684
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5725018
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/freetodream5/pseuds/freetodream5
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>No one expects a meet cute at the library.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Behind the Stacks

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cinderlily](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cinderlily/gifts), [sly_fck](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sly_fck/gifts), [LuciFern](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LuciFern/gifts), [optimusfine](https://archiveofourown.org/users/optimusfine/gifts), [MajaLi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MajaLi/gifts).



> None of this could have been possible without the following:
> 
> CInderlily for cheerleading, spag and Oliver Ekman-Larsson wrangling
> 
> Sly_fck for the cheerleading, and help with Mike Smith & Shane Doan wrangling and being the best wife ever
> 
> LuciFern for SPAG and cheerleading and for being an overall badass
> 
> optimusfine for the original idea for Shane!Librarian 
> 
> majaLI for the name of the coffee house in the library
> 
> This is the first thing I've posted in forever. I do it with love and as a bday present to myself. There might be a coda later.

There was something about being surrounded by old books that had always appealed to Shane growing up. He spent a lot of time in the library when he wasn’t on the ice, reading everything in sight. But when the dream of hockey got taken away from him, Shane decided that he’d do something he really, truly loved, which was be a librarian. Many in his so-called circle of friends scoffed at the idea of him becoming an academic, of surrounding himself with books and what some felt was a thankless job, but Shane wouldn’t trade it for anything.

 

The pay wasn’t great, but he wasn’t really in it for the money. Helping people find things, helping kids open their imagination and explore topics, keeping the relevancy of the necessity of having a library in communities was pretty much worth the lack of pay. Keeping up with new technology, new techniques in library science, kept him pretty interested in it long after many people thought he would.

 

Making lasting friendships and friends wasn’t a bad gig either. 

 

Bracing himself, Shane got out of his car and headed towards the library’s entrance. He waved to the security guard that was always on duty and quickly opened up the doors. It was chilly morning, nothing like it had been growing up in Canada, but Phoenix had a way of bringing it’s own kind of chill when the temperature finally decided to stop being 100 degrees. He quickly disabled the alarm and set about taking off his coat, gloves and scarf, chuckling to himself about routine. Once the outerwear was squared away, he set about booting up the library system and getting the coffee started for the rest of his staff. 

 

10 minutes into his routine, his number one volunteer came flying in the door. 

 

“Hey Harry, what’s up?” Shane called from the book drop.

 

“Never going to stop, are you?” the lanky man said as he stopped to stow his things in the break room next to the book drop. Shane stopped his organizing long enough to greet the other man. Oliver had shown up one day a couple years ago with the rest of the Coyotes, looking lost and frustrated. Through a series of short conversations, Shane had gotten out of him that he was looking to expand his knowledge when he wasn’t on the ice. (And help his English, being that he was from Sweden and he wanted it to be better.) That had led to volunteering whenever he was in town and available. 

 

The Harry nickname was because of an unfortunate encounter with a costume in the man’s rookie season. If Shane got him to dress up occasionally to read to kids, Oliver didn’t seem to mind. He hated the nickname though.

 

“Not on your life. Good game last night?” Shane offered as he went back to emptying the book drop. Oliver came over and moved the cart around to the empty side so Shane wouldn’t tweak his back reaching around and over to fill it up. Shane shared a smile and placed more books on the cart.

 

“No, that was a shit show,” Oliver fired back.

 

“Language.” 

 

Oliver scowled at him and Shane had to laugh. He didn’t quite understand the need to use cuss words, something that confounded his teammates when he played hockey and amused those around him to this day. 

 

The two of them continued to talk about the game, and the schedule for the day at the library until the other library assistants came in and Shane could hold his staff meeting. 

 

After staff meeting it was pretty much just helping patrons check out books, find obscure titles (“Yeah, I was wondering if you had a book on the history of the rodeo in Arizona”), and attending endless meetings about budgets.

 

To many, the entirety of Shane’s job probably seemed monotonous and dull, but Shane loved every bit of it. Especially 3pm. 

 

3pm was when the magic happened.

 

The library was located close to several satellite campuses for the three major universities in the state. Not to mention that it was within public transportation distance of the numerous community colleges and several local high schools. So usually around 3pm was when the library was flooded with teenagers and young adults alike. Occasionally the adult learner came in as well and Shane had to give them credit for wanting to continue or add to their education in this day and age of technological advances and higher priced education. 

 

But it wasn’t just the influx of students to his library that made his day.

 

It was the arrival of his favorite patron. The guy was tall and thinly built. His hair was kind of long and sometimes, depending on the weather, curled a little bit. Being that this was November, his favorite patron was also sporting his latest attempt at the No-Shave November movement and made Shane question why he even liked the man. 

 

3pm was when Smitty arrived.   

 

The two of them had struck up a friendship around the same time that Olie had started volunteering. Shane knew enough about the two of them to know that they both played for the Coyotes but that was about it. Watching/following hockey was hard because it was a dream long deferred and while he kept up with Carey’s stats, he didn’t have the heart to keep after it full time. 

 

So Shane waited patiently from his spot at the customer service desk. It gave some of the older women volunteers no end of amusement that he always had to be at the desk at 3pm every day. While he tried to claim that it was just part of his duties as head librarian, the ladies had long since stopped laughing at him and instead had started a pool on when Shane would make a move. 

 

They liked to think that he didn’t know about such things.

 

So he waited at his appointed station, answering questions and pointing patrons in the right direction as 3pm settled in. 

 

Like clockwork, Smitty walked in. Right away, Shane knew something was wrong. Smitty was hunched down in his jacket, shoulders almost to his ears. His hat, normally just kind of sitting on top of his head, was pulled down low. For all intents and purposes, it looked like 6 foot 3 of man was trying to make himself small and invisible so as to not make anyone pay attention to him. 

 

Smitty had made it halfway down the ramp to the desk when Olie appeared next to Shane and sighed heavily.

 

“Shit show game, feels terrible, not his fault though.” 

 

“Language,” Shane offered back, half heartedly. He couldn’t fix the problem from the night before, that was the job of Smitty and Olie’s team. But he could fix this moment in time. One of the librarian knitting circle ladies was about to win big. 

 

Smitty approached the desk and Shane offered up the biggest smile that he could. 

 

“Hey, you look like you could use a cup of coffee to fight off the chill, my treat?” 

 

*~*~*~

 

Mike hadn’t wanted to come to the library today, still stuck on last night’s tire fire of a game. He knew intellectually that the loss wasn’t his fault that he’d done whatever he could to keep the goals out. But his head was telling him that this year was going to be just as shitty as last year and it almost made him skip his trip. 

 

But the thought of missing Shane’s smiling face wasn’t something Mike was willing to miss, despite how crappy he was feeling from the day before. Mike wasn’t quite sure what about the man kept him coming back (his dimples, dumbass) but there was something peaceful and freeing almost about having a conversation with someone that didn’t quite know who he was.

 

Mike wasn’t naive, he was aware that Shane knew he played for the Coyotes (thanks, Olie, for sharing that nugget) but he didn’t ever ask too many probing questions. It was freeing to have time and space to just be Mike Smith instead of Mike Smith, Arizona Coyotes goalie. But it was also frustrating because he wanted to get know Shane better. He just was skittish about letting someone in, letting someone see that he wasn’t quite perfect. 

 

So he’d put on the comfiest hoodie he’d had, tugged a hat down on top of his mop of hair and trudged to the library. 

 

He wasn’t expecting the object of his reason for visiting to be so forward. Mike could only nod dumbly and follow behind the other man as they walked past the help desk towards the tiny cafe in the back of the library. Olie made a stupid face and a thumbs up sign and Mike wanted to punch his stupid face in. Maybe this was Shane’s way of telling him to stop coming by. 

 

Mike was jolted out of his traitorous thoughts by a hand on his elbow. Looking up, he couldn’t help but get lost in Shane’s dimples.

 

“Hey, you ok?” It was a loaded question that Mike wasn’t sure he could answer without blubbering about everything. He just wanted an hour to just be. 

 

“I will be,” and Mike mustered a smile from somewhere and was rewarded with another one from Shane. 

 

Mike allowed himself be led, Shane’s hand still at his elbow. While the warmth of Shane not letting him go wasn’t a huge gesture, it was comforting none the less. Mike relished it just a little bit.

 

From what MIke knew, the cafe hadn’t been a part of the library for long. It was more like the Timbits stand at Gila River, set up on the fly one day and it hadn’t ever gone away (much to Murph’s pleasure, as he raided that place as often as he could). Mike had always enjoyed the aroma that permeated through the library as he wandered around looking for another book to listen to on road trips with the team (and wandered around to stare at Shane). He’d never let himself partake, mostly because of calories and mostly because he didn’t take the time to come by. 

 

Today seemed like a good day to let himself indulge a little. 

 

“How long’s the shop been here?” he asked, wanting to not seem ungrateful to Shane’s offer and to not be a lump.

 

“I let him move his cart in about a year ago. Guy was between jobs and bored. He also sells shirts and things. They’re cool and he donates a portion to the library, so the board tolerates him,” Shane explained. 

 

Mike looked up at the menu board and choked on air. House of Coffey  was probably the most hilarious name for a coffee shop he’d ever heard of. The girl working the counter stopped messing with her phone long enough to pay attention and Shane ordered a large cup of black coffee. Mike scanned the menu and laughs. 

 

“I’d like a Russian Bear, please” and the girl behind the counter looks a little lost at the order. 

 

“I, uh, don’t know how to actually make..that. Uh,” She hands Shane his coffee and turns around to grab her phone. “I'm only watching the counter for that idiot until he gets back,” the girl muttered, typing away. Mike laughed awkwardly and turned to Shane.

 

“Apparently I’m complicated when it comes to my coffee,” Mike offered and was rewarded with Shane’s bright smile. 

 

“I don’t even know what half the stuff on here is,” Shane told him. 

 

“Are you sure you still want the Russian Bear? I mean I can try it but…” The girl interrupted and Mike just shook his head. 

 

“I’ll take a water. You’ll just have to owe me a coffee later on,” Mike hedged, not exactly sure what the hell he was doing, but if it’ll get Shane to smile at him again, he’d try anything.

 

“It’s a date,” Shane answers back, and Mike swears the other man is blushing. MIke hops on his feet a little. 

 

Mike didn’t want to dwell on the fact that they walked to one of the little tables that were set up near by. Signs positioned around the cafe stated that they didn’t want the food and beverages to reach the stacks and Mike could appreciate that. 

 

“How’d you like that last book I recommended?” Shane asked and Mike smiled. It had been The Martian, a movie that Mike wanted to see, and he had wanted to read the book first. But being that he was busy as crap, Shane had found him the audio before the last Coyote Roadie and he’d spent much of the trip listening to the book. 

 

“It was good. The science was a little above me, but I liked it.” Mike got comfortable in his seat and played with the water bottle in his hands. 

 

“The movie does a good job of keeping you entertained without overwhelming you with science, or so I’m told,” Shane explained, setting his coffee down. 

 

They talked a few minutes more about the book and when Mike might have time to see the movie to compare notes before they ran out of things to talk about. 

 

The silence wasn’t uncomfortable, but it was starting to border on awkward. Mike was going to ask Shane how things were at the library when a loud voice, for a library, hollered toward them.

 

“I want to meet the fool that ordered the Russian Bear! Jae, who ordered it?” Shane stood to immediately shush the guy and since Mike’s back was to the owner of the loud voice, he didn’t get a good look at him at first.

 

“Paul, just because you’re on the opposite side-”

 

“Doaner? You ordered it-”

 

Mike turned and had to blink because he couldn’t believe he didn’t recognize the owner of that voice right away.

 

“Biz? What’re you-”

 

A chorus of “shhhh” made all three men stop. Oliver and a couple of the older lady volunteers were glaring at them from the end of the corridor. Mike felt himself hunch down immediately trying to hide, while Shane got that adorable blush back. Biz - Paul Bissonette - didn’t even look phased. 

 

Twenty minutes later, Mike had decided he was never trying a coffee concoction made by BizNasty every again, (he idly wondered if Malkin knew there was a coffee drink named after him) and he was on his way back home with a new book for the next roadie. While most of the rest of his visit to the library was keeping Paul from spilling all his secrets to Shane, Mike had to admit that he left the library in a lot higher spirits that when he’d entered. 

 

He’d also managed to somehow leave with Shane’s number. He guessed he’d be grateful to Biz for that later, but right now he wasn’t sure what to do with it. 

 

_ thanks for the book recs _

 

~*~*~

 

Shane finished explaining what odds and ends he needed to to the library’s closing staff and started packing up. Shutting down his computer, he pulled his phone from his desk drawer and was surprised to see a text waiting for him. He was still all thumbs when it came to technology like this (Carey and his brother were forever giving him a hard time about it) but he could get by. 

 

_ thanks for the book recs _

 

Shane smirked to himself and pressed reply right away.

 

**my pleasure**

 

Grabbing his keys, Shane shut the lights off in his office, waved to the afternoon staff and headed up the ramp and out the door. He jumped slightly as his phone buzzed in his hand, not expecting a reply that quickly. He paused at the door to his truck and grinned as he read the response.

 

_ I’m going to give Oliver so much crap for not telling me Biz owned a coffee stand _

 

Shane smirked at that. Oliver had stopped by their impromptu gathering after getting them to be quiet to hug Biz and give Mike a hard time. Shane was still acclimating himself to the fact that he was surrounding himself with hockey players unofficially. It ached a little, but he was getting to know them as people, not players, so it didn’t hurt as much as the what could have been that occasionally cropped up into his head.

 

**Biz will give just as much back i’m sure**

 

Shane unlocked his truck and got in, setting the phone in the center console so he wouldn’t be distracted by it. The normally twenty minute drive home ended up taking close to an hour due to so many accidents on the freeway and just general afternoon traffic. He was just grateful to be home. 

 

His home was modest, a ranch style with 3 bedrooms and two baths. Large for one person, but Shane always had family coming to stay with him and he liked to be able to entertain if he needed to. He quickly parked, closed the garage door and entered his house, setting keys and wallet on the table by the door. His phone vibrated in his hand as he headed for the kitchen. 

 

_ Biz is a good guy he just...can be a little over the top _

 

Shane snorted. He knew that just by the interaction at the shop today. 

 

**Everyone has their quirks.**

 

Shane set his phone down on the counter to get things going for dinner. He didn’t always cook, usually was a leftover kind of a guy or a quick one-pot dish he could make up. He’d kept up with the healthy eating that had gotten him through his youth and through minor league hockey as he left the game; it had always appealed to him anyway. He grabbed chicken from the fridge, along with some veggies from the crisper, and grabbed his favorite wok from the shelf and set things next to the stove. He quickly checked his phone and shook his head at the response from Mike. 

 

_ Yeah, but sometimes quirks can backfire _

 

It was an odd response, and to be honest Shane wasn’t sure how to respond. It seemed like Mike was trying to say something, but Shane didn’t know what it was in reference to. Deciding to throw caution to the wind, considering the last month or so of their interaction, Shane typed out a quick reply.

 

**Yeah, but sometimes quirks can lead to new friends, kind of like me and you**

 

He went through the routine of heating the wok, adding the olive oil to heat while he prepped the chicken and the veggies to saute. Twenty minutes later he sat down at his kitchen island and grabbed his phone. Without replying he took a picture of his dinner and sent it to Mike, to explain his lack of reply. Then he scrolled back up to see what Mike had sent.

 

_ :) So as my new friend, would you rather ride a bike, a horse, or drive a car _

 

The answer was a no brainer for Shane. It was why he lived where he lived. 

 

**Ride a horse. Hands down.**

 

They texted back and forth while Shane ate, which was a new experience for him, since he wasn’t one to be so attached to his phone. But he figured in for a penny, in for a pound and all that. They texted each other stupid questions like “list two pet peeves” and other getting to know you questions until finally Mike ended with a question that Shane hadn’t expected and wasn’t sure how to answer. 

 

_ Are you related or distantly related to anyone famous? _

 

**My cousin Carey plays in the NHL**

 

Shane didn’t get a response right away and he wasn’t sure if he was grateful or not. Keeping up with Carey, even as little as he did, was probably the only hockey related thing he did, besides coordinate with Oliver his volunteer hours and help Mike find books for road trips. Not a lot of people asked Carey about his cousin who used to play hockey so it wasn’t like reporters hunted him down when Carey came to town. But he didn’t want to make it a big deal. 

 

_ YOUR COUSIN IS CAREY PRICE?!?! _

 

**2nd Cousin. Yeah.**

 

_ Holy crap. Wow. That’s cool. He’s a good guy. Hey, can I text you while we’re on the roadie? is that weird?  _

 

Shane wasn’t sure if Mike believed him or not. It was hard to grasp tone of voice over an electronic device, so he didn’t want to dwell on if he was being humored or not. 

 

**He’s ok. Shouldn’t you be asleep? Texting me is fine, not weird.**

 

_ You’re one to talk. Good night. _

 

**Good Night. :)**

 

~*~*~

 

Mike sat on his bed and blinked at his phone. 

 

He...hadn’t been expecting whatever was going on between him and Shane. Not when he first stopped by the library and certainly not when he left with Shane’s number in his phone today. 

 

To be honest when he’d started going to the library after the initial volunteer session, it was because he needed something for road trips when movies stopped helping him clear his head. He could actually navigate a library, contrary to what most people thought about hockey players and sheltered lives. But Mike actually enjoyed getting recommendations from Shane, and looked forward to when he had to come back. 

 

Today had been a happy surprise in actually getting to get past “got any good recommendations,” considering how he’d been feeling since waking up. 

But now they’d spent the rest of the afternoon and evening texting back and forth and..Mike didn’t quite know what to think. His last relationship had ended in a tire fire of frustration and anger and he wasn’t sure if he was ready to jump into something again.

 

He  _ was _ ok with gaining a friend outside of hockey though. 

 

_ Hey can I text you while we’re on the roadie? Is that weird? _

 

Mike had set his phone on his bedside table and gone to get ready for bed. Washing his unruly mop of hair (he was gonna have to cut it soon, maybe he’d do the mohawk again) and going through the rigmarole of his nightly routine, Mike finally stopped stalling and checked his phone. 

 

**Texting me is fine. Shouldn’t you be asleep?**

 

Mike snorted into the silence of his empty bedroom and texted a quick reply. 

 

_ You’re one to talk. Good night. _

 

He didn’t get a reply back but Mike figured that since so much time had passed between his text and Shane’s that Shane was probably already asleep or doing something else. So he set his phone on the charger and got into bed.

 

**Good Night. :)**

 

Mike jumped when his phone went off. Twisting to grab it he felt himself smile as he saw Shane’s message. 

 

Maybe this would work out after all.

 

*~*~*~

 

_ The one thing I hate about traveling is that I have this irrational fear that they’ll lose my luggage _

 

Mike sat himself in his seat on the plane and got comfy. He knew that he wouldn’t hear back from Shane until they landed in Dallas, but he figured it’d be a good way to get this texting thing going again today. 

 

He hadn’t wanted to start off with something weird when he woke up this morning, like good morning or something. So he waited until they were heading out to board the plane to send his message. He thumbed through his phone to find the book he’d picked up yesterday and got it loaded and ready to go for take off when he felt someone take the seat next to me. 

 

“So, how is it going?” Oliver asked, grinning like the idiot he was. 

 

“There’s a lot of things that could be in reference too, you wanna be more specific?” Mike shot back. Oliver grinned and actually got more comfortable in his seat. 

 

“He wants to know about the epic love between you and the librarian, and so do I,” Bøeds stated, peaking his head over the seat in front of Mike. Mike narrowed his eyes and looked at Oliver. 

 

“Don’t blame Olie, Biz texted me that you were making googly eyes at his new boss,” Bøeds interrupted before Mike could go after Olie. That didn’t make him feel better.  

 

“Are you two seriously going to do this right now?” Mike asked, knowing that the more petulant that he sounded the more the two of them would badger him about the thing with Shane. 

 

“As your captain, I want what’s best for you,” Olie grinned at him

 

“No, you just want to live through me because you and Bøeds are an old married couple,” Mike shot back, grinning slightly, knowing that he was right. The two of them were the biggest busibodies on the team, and close behind them were the rookies. Nothing could be kept secret very long. The fastest way to spread anything in the room was to tell Connor. Speaking of…

 

“Who else knows?” Mike tried to keep the resignation out of his voice, wondering when the chirps were gonna start.

 

“Oh, please. After your last relationship went to shit, we’re keeping this close. I warned Biz to shut up about it to Vermy and Z. So you know, unless things change, no one knows anything is going on.”

 

Mike breathed a little easier at that and thought that he was in the clear. But Olie hadn’t moved and Bøeds was still staring at him like he was a sideshow attraction.

 

“What?” 

 

“So, what is going on between you and Shane? I get to see it from both sides and I kinda like him so,” Olie asked. 

 

Luckily, Mike was saved by the pilot announcing that they were getting ready for takeoff and if everyone could please take their seats. Olie and Bøeds moved to their seats, which were thankfully away from Mike. but not before both men gave him the stink eye. Mike knew their interrogation wasn’t over, but he was going to do his best to curtail it until he had better answers for them about how he felt about Shane. 

 

Maybe he could delay it until they got back to Phoenix. 

 

_ My teammates are the nosiest people on the planet _

 

_ ~*~*~* _

_ The one thing I hate about traveling is that I have this irrational fear that they’ll lose my luggage _

 

Shane wasn’t quite sure what to make of the text that greeted him when he finally remembered to check his phone the day after he and Mike had started texting. He’d woken up late, and then there’d been a huge a computer crash at the library so he hadn’t really had much time to delve into his phone. He’d managed to catch a break when lunch came around and saw the first text from Mike. 

 

He wasn’t sure what to type back that would be reassuring because it was something that he worried about too when he traveled. Before he could formulate a reply, one of the computer techs found him and he had to get back to solving the problems of his immediate point in time in life. He’d text Mike when he had a free moment. 

 

Though he had to laugh when he read the last text Mike sent him as he left the break room. 

 

_ My teammates are the nosiest people on the planet _

 

_ *~*~* _

 

After that horrendous day at the library, Shane kept up a steady stream of texting between himself and Smitty. (There’d been the “what’s a favorite nickname your friends call you” question one afternoon and Shane had pretty much been calling Mike “Smitty” since he’d admitted it.) He wasn’t quite sure how long Mike was on the road for but it was a nice addition to his daily routine. 

 

It'd been about a month since they'd started this whole thing and Shane was starting to miss seeing Smitty’s face. It was nice texting back and forth and getting to know the man behind the ridiculous hair and trucker hats that’d been coming to his library well before Shane had managed to make a move. So he felt like maybe there was a chance to up their communication a little bit more. 

 

He just wasn’t sure how to go about it.

 

Which led him to the doing the most ridiculous google search he’d ever done in his life. 

 

He knew this because one of the volunteers, Liz, told him as she looked over his shoulder. 

 

“Did you really just google how to send a flirty text?” She asked incredulously.

 

Another one of the volunteers came over at that, Shane thought her name was Ash. He had to stop employing so many young people who were just as bad at gossiping and being nosy as the knitting crew that came by once a week.    
  


“Oh is this for the hockey player you’ve been flirting with for days?” And suddenly Shane found himself surrounded by a gaggle of women very interested in his love life. Sometimes he worried about his life choices. 

 

By the time he left for home, he’d been subjected to probably way too many flirty text and bad pick up lines. He decided to just go for honest and sent what he hoped was nothing too threatening or overtly flirty. 

 

**I have a problem. I can’t stop thinking about you.**

 

When Smitty hadn’t responded two days later, and Shane was a little tipsy because of a work party that he normally didn’t go to, he threw caution to the wind and pulled his phone out after watching two of his employees dance to some slow song by Adele. He figured if the previous text didn’t get him an answer, then maybe this one would. He hoped. 

 

**Where have you been hiding?**

 

The next morning was a rough one for Shane. His head was pounding a beat that he was pretty sure played at the party the night before and he felt like he’d done a few rounds with something, probably Jose or Jack. He checked his phone, and was a little crushed that there was still no reply from Smitty. Sighing he went through the rest of his morning routine and headed into work. 

 

He was pleasantly surprised to see that Oliver was there, though Oliver was a little early, or maybe Shane was late. Either way, he hadn’t seen the Swede for a month and he hadn’t realized that in missing Smitty, he’d also missed this friend as well. 

 

“Hey, welcome back, how’s it been going,” He asked as he came in. 

 

“It’s been ok. How’re you?” Oliver asked, smiling back at him.

 

“Ok. Hey listen, is everything ok with Smitty? I haven’t heard from him for a couple of days? Did you guys have a bad row of games or something?” Shane asked, wondering if maybe Oliver would know about the radio silence. 

 

Oliver just kind of looked at him for a moment before sighing and leaning against the counter of the check out desk. 

 

“You didn’t see the game?” Oliver asked. Shane forgot that Oliver didn’t know that he didn’t really follow hockey beyond talking to him and Smitty. A million things through his head before he just finally settling on the easiest to ask. 

 

“What happened?”

 

“Smitty’s out for at least a month. He had to go to Philly to get surgery. He got hurt pretty bad.” 

 

Shane was suddenly very aware why Smitty had stopped talking to him. He knew all too well what it was like to lose the one thing that mattered to him. Shutting out friends had been the first thing he’d done after the official word came down about his career. He regretted it now, but there wasn’t much he could do. 

 

“Wow. That’s, I had no idea.” Shane was at a loss. He wasn’t sure how to proceed. Or if he should.

 

“He’ll be home tomorrow. He probably wouldn’t mind a visit.” Oliver said suddenly and Shane blinked at him. 

 

“We really didn’t talk about what would happen beyond the texting. I mean…” Shane trailed off. But Oliver shook his head.

 

“Trust me, you didn’t see him the last month. I’ll clear it for sure, but maybe this weekend? What’s your number, so I can text you?” And, much like the day that Shane and Smitty had exchanged phone numbers, Shane gave over his number and wondered how his life had become so strange. 

 

He sent off one more text to Smitty before he got back to work, hoping it conveyed everything that he wanted Smitty to know regarding their...whatever they had. 

 

Later that night, Shane received a text from Oliver.

 

I checked. All clear. Here’s the address. 

 

Shane opened his messages to Smitty and sent what he hoped would be a well received text message. 

 

**Favorite ice cream and movie just need to know when you want me to stop by**

 

Shane didn’t hear back immediately but he wasn’t expecting to. Just because Oliver said it was ok for him to stop by didn’t mean that Smitty was in the mood to text. 

 

_ Mint choc chip & mean girls it’s like I have ESPN or something _

_ how about tomorrow?  _

 

Shane barked out a laugh and made a reminder on his phone to find the movie and the ice cream as well as plans to leave work early the next day. 

 

**I can fit my whole fist in my mouth**

 

The resulting string of goobledegook he got back was well worth his memorization of the more hilarious moments of Mean Girls. 

 

~*~*~*~

 

**Good luck in your game tonight, and look sexy while doing it :D**

 

_ You can’t send texts like that while I’m trying to sleep. Also come here and sleep with me _

 

**Tempting but you know what happens when we get together in bed**

 

_ yes, I know, which is why you need to come here _

 

**mike**

 

_ shane. come fuck me into this mattress so I can sleep before this game please _

 

**….be there in twenty**

 

_ I’ll be ready to go  _

  
**_….i’ll be there in ten_ **


End file.
